Awkward: Prominent Islamist With Ties to the Brotherhood & Al-Qaeda Gives Glowing Obama Endorsement

Sudan's Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi addresses the media in Khartoum following his release on January 5, 2012 after more than three months in jail. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama's detractors often point out that he has received a startling number of endorsements from anti-American leaders and dictators, and now, he has one more to add to the list.

Though not a particularly well-known figure in America, Hassan al-Turabi is a prominent Islamist in Africa who helped bring the Islamist regime of President Omar al-Bashir in Sudan to power.  Since that time, Sudan has become a haven for extremists and terrorists, even hosting Osama bin Laden from 1991 to 1996.

Turabi has gone so far as to defend the man who helped coordinate the murder of roughly 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001, saying the "media image" is not the "true bin Laden" he knew.

Having served as the secretary-general of the Islamic Charter Front-- a political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood that pushed an Islamic constitution and opposed western secularism-- Turabi has spent the last few decades in and out of jail for his radical beliefs, Israel National News adds.

When asked who he supports for president of the United States, Turabi reportedly replied: "Obama, of course."

Though Obama has taken credit for killing Osama bin Laden, Turabi added: “You know what ‘Baraka’ means in Arabic? Blessing.”

Apparently, he likes that Obama uses the word "terrorism" less than George W. Bush did, and that "he’s gentle towards the Muslims generally.”

Turabi is such a fan, he says, that he has taken to reading President Obama's books during his not infrequent jail stints.

(H/T: WeaselZippers)

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